As a stand-alone film, this works quite well. It's atmospheric, has surprising plot twists, and a frightful premise. The "Halloween" franchise on a whole is unsatisfying because the producers could never seem to agree on a cohesive mythology. At least the "Nightmare On Elm Street" and "Friday The 13th" series established definitive identities for their maniacs to adhere to. Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees had consistent characters, however one-note they may be. The "Halloween" series are just all over the map and Myers as a villain is just too prosaic. He's a bogeyman with no real self behind the mask. Who can blame the filmmakers for wanting to try something different with a rapidly-tiring idea? "Halloween 2" was decent but perfunctory. Parts 4 & 5 were even further down the ladder and by the time we reach the wretched later entries, previous films have been totally disregarded. There are so many contradictions, revisions, and omissions throughout the franchise that it's all become a jumbled collection of cliches and redundancies. Michael dies and rises again, killed by any number of resourceful heroines; Laurie is alternately in hiding, deceased, or institutionalized; Michael's jeopardized niece becomes the new menacee only to vanish three films later; and the whole Samhain premise is just a flimsy excuse to make a human menace unkillable. At least Part 3 tried to shift away from a character that had no real longevity in favor of some actual terror and a compelling Halloween myth.

I actually enjoyed this movie despite its weaknesses. Its far better than the Michael Myers rehash that will never mercifully end. Original idea (bloody horrifying really), surprising twists, great job by Dean Cundy and perhaps John Carpenters best score. The annoying jingle is actually brilliant and representative of marketing at its best (you still cannot forget it can you) and worst.

The Michael Myers complaint is a joke, in fact there was not even supposed to be a Halloween II according to John Carpenter. The first movie went over most peoples head with the supernatural element. Michael Myers was just the name of the body "The Shape" was inhabiting. He was the embodiment of Halloween so to speak. Carpenter was not keen on a sequel at all and i personally wish none of the the Myers sequels were made. Halloween II in my eyes seems to get worse with age while Halloween III improves. The second movie is a by the numbers bore and lacks the spirit of the 1st. They could not even get the mask right in the sequels. Anyways, Halloween III was flawed but brilliant in certain aspects and the best part for me was the score. Spectacular.

I liked "H3" because it was such utter nonsense. How did they get the rock from Stonehenge over here? Hell, how did they even manage to steal it in the first place without setting off a massive worldwide Interpol investigation? Who cares? It's flicks like "H3" that provide a very welcome respite from overrated Oscar winning crappola like "The English Patient". Now that one really sucked! As for the whole "no connection to the other movies" thing, one could argue that "Halloween 6:The Curse Of Michael Myers" contradicts that statement. Simply put, it's the whole Druid aspect of "H6" that ties (albeit loosely) Part 3 with the rest of the series. Speaking of "H6", that would be my choice for the worst entry in the series. It's a very half-assed movie and it's pretty depressing to watch a movie in which the lead actor (i.e. Donald Pleasance) is obviously sick and dying. Barring that aspect, "H6" is still really bad.

The movie might not have been all that great, but it sure was fun! Sept. 8, 2005: 53 more days to Halloween, Halloween Halloween, 53 more days to Halloween, Silver Shamrock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Come on, people need to get over the lack of Myers in this movie. There are 7 movies with the guy for crying out loud! Besides Carpenter actually LIKED this one! The idea to do a movie without Myers was mostly his idea. I don't have time to go into details, look it up. At any rate, this film is fun. At the very least its better than "Freddy's Dead" and most of the "Friday the 13th"s. Oh, and no one can convince me it's seriously worse than any of the Halloween movies made since the 80s. H20 was a particular low point, 70 minutes of "Dawson's Creek" 20 minutes of OK, moderately suspensful slasherflick. Thats not what I watch Horror movies for! H3 is much closer to my idea of horror.

To be perfectly honest, I kinda liked the movie but what really sucked was that Michael Myers wasn't in it. I mean you can't have Hallloween 3 without Michael Myers right? Am I right? Come on, someone back me up on this. But the plot twist was great and the dialogue was okay, but it lacks what the Halloween series is all about.

1. A hospital with two, maybe three staff on night duty (in the UK, this is nothing new!) 2. A coroner who somehow figures out that the charred remains of a cog mean that a robot automoton with super powers must have pulled someones face off and set themselves on fire.3. A factory tour that last for two days and nights.4. A women who drives at least 900 miles to return one mask with one defect. 5. A halloween mask manufacturer who makes only three product types and achieves at least 99% market penetration (SONY... you reading this...)6. A women's face is exploded by a magic laser in the back of a trademark badge which is activated by scratching it with a hairpin. (I think SOMEONE would have noticed this before the 31st and probably raised some child safety concerns!)7. A perfect replica of the doctors girlfriend is created in mere minutes - though she lacks the ability to speak.8. The robot men seem to have gravy for blood.9. The mad irish guy turns blue and vanishes.10. The doc manages to convince TV networks that a syndicated advertising campaign that has been running successfully for over a week will somehow emit a signal which will activate the magic trademark laser and kill any child that is wearing one of the masks AND happens to be watching TV at that exact moment.... and they believe him and two out of the three (what TV era is this in the US?) networks stop the advert...

So many things... but when all said and done. There is a great sense of hopelessness. Its ends as good films should end - with the child killing masks being activated by the TV advert - and the Doc screaming to stop it. Alas... it goes on and one can only assume that children all over the US are falling to the floor as their head turns into a variety of garden insects and snakes...

Come on... you can either take this film as it is OR whine and moan that it isn't another DULL slasher movie. And lets face it... if they had of included Mr Myers, it doesn't mean it would actually have been any better anyway...

Johnny Carp didn't direct this one BTW - a common error overlooked by many.. Tommy Lee Wallace did and, for trivia hunters, he PLAYED Mr. Myers in Halloween 1... so you see, there is a connection.

Good soundtrack too -

Halloween III: season of the witch...

More holes than mechano, acting like thunderbirds.. but for some reason I could't really explain. I love it!

I absolutely despise this movie. And not for the sole reason that's it a Halloween movie without Michael Myers.

It's just a terrible, terrible film from beginning to end. Not to mention that it commits the cardinal sin of being boring as hell.

The acting is atrocious, the pacing nonexistent (beyond leaden), the special effects terrible, the camera hardly moves. Plus you got that annoying commercial jingle that plays about 8 thousand times during the movie.

« Last Edit: September 04, 2007, 08:07:02 PM by Torgo »

Logged

"There is no way out of here. It'll be dark soon. There is no way out of here."

They should have just called it "Season of The Witch", and avoided p**sing so many people off.

It's an odd, but watchable little film, with some good kills. The three main problems I have with it, though:

1. The plot was far fetched, and put together very sloppily.

2. The ending. I understood what they were trying to do, it just felt anti-climactic the way they did it.

3. Tom Atkins. He was good in Night of The Creeps, but a film like this just isn't a fit for him. His emotional range seems to be limited to varieties of p**sed off...even in the love scenes with Ellie, he still looks p**sed off.